My choice for quote of the day comes from Gov. Abercrombie, quoted in the Star-Advertiser this morning concerning the state’s “last, best, and final” contract offer to the Hawaii State Teachers Association.
“I think that anybody would come to the conclusion that it (the contract) was not only fair, but that it was the best combination that we could put together in these tough times,” the governor told reporters at the state Capitol.
But, quite obviously, not everyone agreed with his conclusion, as the HSTA board had already rejected the offer.
Anyway, it’s disturbing to see this Democratic governor going down this path in labor negotiations.
I have to wonder what kinds of non-cost items had been raised by the union during bargaining. In lean economic times, that’s often where negotiators find tradeoffs. The union agrees to wage or benefit concessions, and in exchange the employer concedes in other non-cost areas. But we don’t know, because labor issues aren’t typically reported until there’s a crisis, and the public has no background understanding of the range of issues on the table.
Speaking of labor reporting, Pacific Business News reports in its current issue that Unite Here Local 5 has signed up 800 new members with a successful organizing drive at airport concessionaire HMS Host and at the Waikiki Edition hotel. That’s something just over an 8% growth in members, which seems like a pretty significant boost.
Not a peep about it that I can find in any mainstream media via a Google search.
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Yesterday’s S-A article did mention one non-cost item — increased preparation time for teachers — but no others and one has to wonder whether that will come att he expense of instructional time if the offer already includes (according to that article) 7.5 to 9 days of unpaid leave (furlough).
There are no non-cost items. There are items that are not visible in monetary accounting terms, but everything that public employees get is a “cost” and all of it needs to be controlled in these times.
The teachers don’t want to strike – I know, as I’ve got one in the house – but furloughs PLUS a pay cut are hard to swallow.
While teachers – all of us, for that matter – understand that we have to give up something, having the contract IMPOSED on them without further discussion reveals NA’s true attitude toward educators. And sets a precedent.
The teachers have their own workarounds planned. Wait and see.
Regarding the organizing drive for Unite Here Local 5 – PBN article also notes that the employer accepted the card check process through the National Labor Relations Act instead of fighting the organizing drive in a further step. Noteworthy, since Hawaii is the only jurisdiction that permits the card check process to certify unions outside the jurisdiction of the NLRAct-which for clarity sake did apply to the Local 5 drive.
With the exception of those rare few who aren’t really committed to educating their students, teachers don’t get enough respect or enough pay in this country. I am afraid that Neil, faced with little choice in dealing with a tight budget, may have done what he thought he had to do. However, his failure in this no win situation is that he has so far not shown much respect for the educators. His tough guy “I know best” attitude gets people’s backs up. He needs to show the teachers some more love to bring them over.
Without some consensus, I fear public education in Hawaii could face another disastrous year.
It’s certainly arguable (at least) that state workers got a worse deal from pro-labor Neil than they got from anti-union, anti-public worker Lingle.